elegaic

English

Etymology

Based on a mispronunciation influenced by -ic.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˌɛləˈdʒeɪ.ɪk/

Adjective

elegaic (comparative more elegaic, superlative most elegaic)

  1. Nonstandard form of elegiac.
    • 1702, [Charles Gildon], “The Preface”, in Examen Miscellaneum. Consisting of Verse and Prose. [], London: [] B[ernard] L[intott] and Sold by John Chantry, [], →OCLC, signature [A7], verso:
      In the ſame Piece [An Essay upon Poetry] he [John Sheffield, 1st Marquess of Normanby] has alſo laid down very juſt Rules for the forming of Lyric, and Elegaic Poetry; []
    • 1744, “Of the State of Athens from the Establishing Annual Archons, to the Achæan League”, in An Universal History, [], 2nd edition, volume II, London: [] S[amuel] Richardson; T[homas] Osborne, [], book I (The Asiatic History to the Time of Alexander the Great), chapter XVIII (The History of the Athenians), page 453:
      So aſſiduous was this prince [Hipparchus] in cultivating the minds of the people, that he cauſed in city and country, but eſpecially in the latter, ſtatues of Mercury to be ſet up, and certain wiſe counſels in Elegaic verſe to be inſcribed on both ſides of them.
    • 1918, Michael Williams, “California”, in The Book of the High Romance: A Spiritual Autobiography, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC, part II (The Homeward Way), chapter IX (A Testament of Egotism), page 210:
      Its haunting, occult bewitchment yearns and throbs in the songs of many poets, and from these wells of wonder and vistas of high romance which California opens for the thirsty souls of the children of America our literature is being enriched—think of [] the murmurous monotone, so full of elegaic tristness, of Charles Warren Stoddard, []

References